CHARLOTTE – Whether it was the pageantry and excitement of the opening game against the Campbell, the comeback against Gardner-Webb or the season-high point total in the finale against Morehead State, the Charlotte 49ers football delivered on many levels in their inaugural season.

At least that’s the sentiment of those involved with the program, particularly when you realize standing-room-only tickets allowed 15,314-seat Jerry Richardson Stadium to average 15,541 in attendance this season.

“It’s actually gone pretty much the way we planned it, which is a tribute to a lot of folks’ hard work,” said coach Brad Lambert, whose team closed its inaugural season with a 5-6 record following a 61-17 win at Morehead State last Saturday. “But we know we’ve got to continue working, improving and recruiting in order to go through this process.”

Expectations entering the season ranged from fans just happy to have a team to those who were ready to take on the best college football had to offer after blowouts in the first two games.

But it was a year in which the foundation, Lambert hopes, has been laid for a solid program for years to come.

Fans clearly were excited, as evidenced by the overflow crowds.

And players’ expectations will be even higher heading into the final season before their Football Bowl Subdivision debut in Conference USA in 2015.

“Most of our fans are very pleased,” athletic director Judy Rose said. “No we haven’t won every game we played. We didn’t know how it would all work. And we played a really tough schedule with ranked opponents and with teams that have had football.

“We haven’t had football until this year. So we’ve got such a young team. I hope fans will understand that we’re playing for today but we’re not. We’re playing for 2015. We have to get age on the team in 2015 because we’re going up quite a notch.”

No one knows that reality more than Lambert, who will manage a roster that has 56 scholarship players now, will have 75 before next season and 85 when the 49ers jump up in competition in Conference USA in 2015.

“Being consistent from a practice and preparation standpoint sticks out to me when I think back on the season,” Lambert said. “The guys and the staff were always professional and always prepared. So it was a lot of fun for a first year.”

Allowing redshirt freshmen or true freshmen to make 154 starts was a curse initially, but it is certain to pay off big in the future.

However, perhaps Lambert’s toughest challenge will be in whether or not to redshirt some of the true freshman who played this season next year.

“We’ll make that decision after spring ball, but we’d like to redshirt them all,” Lambert said of the seven true freshmen who played this season. “But can we redshirt Trent (Bostick) or Kalif (Phillips) or JBT (Justin Bridges-Thompson)? They were all very beneficial this season, but we have to balance our roster by classes.”

“So we’ve got a lot of talented, young players who got an awful lot of experience,” Lambert said.

In truth, only six players were seniors.

So while the players may be the same, the facilities will be improving and preparing for the future.

The biggest change for next season could be night-time football after lights will be added to the stadium in the spring; All six Charlotte home games this season were played at noon.

“It’s to be determined,” Rose said of potential night home games. “But having lights certainly gives us some flexibility that we didn't want before.

“We would have had to add lights in 2015 anyway because, when we’re in Conference USA, we’re going to have night games – maybe during the week – since television dictates a lot of the timing of these games.”

Rose says the feedback she’s gotten on the inaugural season has been positive – and she’s hopeful the entertainment value and stadium experience keeps getting better and better.

“We’ve done surveys and with most people they say what we’ve provided has exceeded their expectations,” Rose said. “I think the people could not envision the stadium being this nice. When we travel to other places, it’s made our fans realize what we have here. So it’s been nice to provide an environment that makes them proud.”

You can reach Richard Walker at 704-869-1841 or by twitter.com/JRWalk22